The “1922” short message service (SMS) is only used for contact tracing to curb the spread of COVID-19 and has never been used in criminal investigations, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said on Sunday.
The commission issued the statement after the Legislative Yuan on Friday reduced the subsidies that the commission budgeted to partially fund telecoms in maintaining their messaging service systems from NT$800 million (US$28.623 million) to NT$300 million.
On Saturday, the Chinese-language United Daily News published a letter written by Taichung District Court Judge Chang Yuan-sen (張淵森), who accused the Criminal Investigation Bureau of using the 1922 service to track suspects, citing an application for a search warrant he had reviewed.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Government via CNA
The commission said in the statement that information gathered through the 1922 service is only used for “disease prevention purposes,” meaning that only the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) can request access to the data.
The bureau has never requested the center’s permission to access the data, it said.
“Except for the CECC, telecoms have never offered such data to other third parties. The government has been keeping its word about how data should be used,” it added.
The Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法) stipulates that a district judge may issue an interception warrant if there is sufficient evidence that an accused or a suspect has been involved in criminal activity, and that it is reasonable to assume that the content of their communications is relevant to the case being investigated.
The warrant allows police to view or listen to communication records of suspects, including text messages sent to the 1922 hotline, the commission said.
“The communication surveillance system is regulated by the Communication Security and Surveillance Act, whereas data collected by 1922 messaging service are used by CECC to track the spread of coronavirus. The two systems are established using different regulations, setting different purposes and scopes for data gathering,” it said.
“It is regrettable that the judge made a commentary without first discerning different regulations governing access to the two systems,” it said.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is a deputy head of the center, said that they have reminded police stations nationwide that they should exclude 1922 messages from criminal investigations.
The service activates the text-messaging function for the 1922 hotline, which was established by the Centers for Disease Control for people to ask questions about COVID-19 or other communicable diseases.
Regarding the budget cut for messaging services, the commission said text messages are delivered to the 1922 hotline free of charge.
As of Monday last week, more than 390 million messages had been sent to 1922, the commission said.
The subsidies would be used to help telecoms expand the capacity of their text-messaging systems to store messages and process the CECC’s contact tracing requests, the commission said.
The money spent by telecoms to maintain the systems is much more than the subsidies.
The Executive Yuan launched 1922’s messaging service on May 19, when the government issued a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert. Under the alert, businesses and restaurants must record customers’ names and telephone numbers, as well as the number of accompanying visitors, for contact tracing.
Businesses and restaurants need to obtain a QR code by registering on the e-Mask pre-order system (emask.taiwan.gov.tw/real) and place the code in their venues.
When entering a store or a restaurant, people need to scan the code using a smartphone and follow a prompt that appears on the screen to send a message to the 1922 hotline.
Telecoms must delete the messages from their systems after 28 days.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of